A Coordinated, Comprehensive approach to Carbon Capture and Utilisation

对于能源供应的未来以及能源使用对气候变化的影响，社会上存在着大量的焦虑。然而，我们每天都以湿废物的形式丢弃大量的能量，这些湿废物的碳含量最终会进化到环境中。厌氧消化，即废物在缺氧情况下被细菌消耗，越来越多地被用于将废物转化为甲烷流（即天然气）。不幸的是，这个过程也会产生大量的二氧化碳，这本身就会导致全球变暖，从而削弱了消化的环境优势。这个项目正在研究如何利用一部分甲烷将二氧化碳转化为燃料。即将生产的燃料几乎是碳中性的，因为它是由原本会释放到环境中的碳制成的，而且因为它取代了化石燃料的使用。为了证明采用这种方法确实有净能量效益，我们将使用整个过程研究来跟踪质量和能量流。此外，我们将利用定量可持续性分析中的一些最新思想，同时考虑我们所建议的环境，经济和社会影响。我们认为，社会接受度是引入此类技术的关键标准，我们将咨询利益相关者，并将他们的观点纳入我们的分析。我们看到未来二氧化碳将被可持续地捕获并转化为有价值的材料——碳捕获和利用（CCU）。我们的工作将确保对CCU的环境案例采取全面和协调的方法。不仅需要开发新颖和复杂的工艺，而且还需要在单元操作、材料和反应路线方面取得真正的化学工程进展。我们已经组建了一个由化学工程师、物理化学家、理论化学家、环境分析师和材料科学家组成的顶级团队来解决这个问题。他们将研究分离二氧化碳和甲烷的新方法，使用最近开发的一类溶剂材料——离子液体，这种材料不会蒸发，因此不会产生大气排放。这些将与最近的一项发明结合使用，微泡接触器有望大幅降低分离的能源成本。理论和物理化学家将研究新的催化方法，使反应在“绿色”的温度和压力条件下发生，化学工程师将研究新的反应器，包括高温气体电解和电晕辅助二氧化碳还原。

There is a great deal of social angst about the future of our energy supplies and the impact of energy use on climate change. Yet, daily we discard vast amounts of energy in the form of wet wastes whose carbon content is eventually evolved to the environment. Anaerobic digestion, where wastes are consumed by bacteria in the absence of oxygen, is increasingly being used to convert the wastes into a stream of methane (i.e. natural gas). Unfortunately, the process also produces large quantities of CO2 which itself contributes to global warming and so subtracts from the environmental advantages of digestion. This project is looking at ways in which a portion of the methane can be used to convert the CO2 into fuel. The fuel that would be produced will be nearly carbon neutral in that it is made from carbon that otherwise would be released to the environment and because it displaces the use of fossil fuels. In order to demonstrate that there really are net energy benefits from taking this approach we will use whole process studies to track mass and energy flows. Moreover, we will tap into some of the latest thinking in quantitative sustainability analysis and consider simultaneously the environmental, economic and social impact of what we propose. We believe that social acceptability is a key criterion for introducing technology of this sort and we will be consulting stakeholders and incorporating their views into our analyses. We see a future in which CO2 will be sustainably captured and converted into valuable materials - Carbon Capture and Utilisation (CCU). Our work will ensure a comprehensive and coordinated approach to the environmental case for CCU. Not only is development of novel and necessarily complex processes required but also there will need to be real chemical engineering advances in terms of unit operations, materials and reaction routes. We have assembled a top level team of chemical engineers, physical chemists, theoretical chemists, environmental analysts and materials scientists to tackle this problem They will work on novel ways of separating the CO2 from the methane using a recently developed class of solvent materials, Ionic Liquids, that do not evaporate and which do not therefore create atmospheric emissions. These will be used in conjunction with a recent invention, the microbubble contactor, which promises drastically to cut the energy costs of the separation. The theoretical and physical chemists will look at novel approaches to catalysis which will let the reactions occur at under "green" conditions of temperature and pressure and the chemical engineers will look at novel reactors including high temperature gas electrolysis and corona assisted CO2 reduction.